AND WE'RE OFF!

The day has finally come. We are finally going to be on our way Tennessee, leaving Amherst at 5am tomorrow morning. Right now, we are about to sit down to a lovely dinner prepared by Steph and Mike (thanks guys) and start talking about our upcoming adventure! This trip has been in the works since early October, and I would like to thank my WONDERFUL team members, and all of our AMAZING friends and family that donated to help us to fund this trip :)

These past few weeks have been insanely crazy, with a lot of problems that made it seem as though this would not be possible. Issues with renting a van, insurance, money...you name it, and it probably came up. There was a breaking point a few weeks ago where it seemed as though the entire world was determined to stop us from going South, but with hard work by everyone, everything worked out! We had two fundraisers last week - the first being a fundraising night at Bertucci's, where Steph works.  All of the money raised at that fundraiser is going to go directly to the Blount County Habitat for Humanity, which is where we'll be working all week. The second fundraiser was Trivia Night at the Harp, an awesome Irish bar down the street from UMass that donates half of the proceeds of their weekly trivia night to a local club or charity. The money raised there is going to strictly go to our gas money...because we know that is going to probably be the most expensive part of getting to and from.

We have officially loaded up our 12 person van (with the backseats taken out) with our sleeping gear, work boots, and tool boxes! I am looking forward to the 15 hour drive because although I have my CDL license, I can't drive the van because I'm only 20. So: my plan is to keep everyone awake, and wave enthusiastically at people that we pass. I also plan on taking an obscene amount of pictures, because I think the scenery that we pass is going to be phenomenal.

Hopefully I will update ASAP with pictures and stories of our crazy car ride - everyone enjoy St. Patrick's Day, and for those of you who are on break; HAVE FUN with whatever you're doing!